"We're gonna get a lot better." UConn and Dan Hurley With A Statement Win Over Michigan In Front Of An Insane Boston Crowd To Open The First College Hoops Weekend Of The Season
This was not a revenge win. A win in the first week of November is sure as shit not the same as a National Title win seven months prior. The Wolverines were LOADED last year and deserved their championship.
No, this was a statement win.
And #4 UConn 85 over #16 Michigan 77 made a couple of statements Friday night in Boston.
The first statement was pretty obvious - UConn is really, really good. Michigan is going to be just fine. They have the same backcourt that helped lead them to a National Title a season ago. It won't be surprising when they're back in the Sweet 16 this year.
And UConn completely dominated them.
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Silas Demary was born to play point for UConn, and he showed why again Friday night. When UConn got in foul trouble early, he carried them through the first half.
The Huskies led for all but 52 seconds in this game. The final score is closer because UConn messed around, and Michigan kept hitting threes - this was really like a 20-point win.
And as Dan Hurley said after the game, this team is going to get better. Six of their nine top players are freshmen or sophomores.
I agree with Jeff D. Lowe. This UConn team seems more confident and maybe deeper than the team that lost to Michigan last year. I know Marty Mush has already given the title to Duke, but this UConn team does feel special.
We even got our first Dan Hurley viral moment during the game, when he found out a technical foul assessed to the UConn bench was NOT on him.
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Hurley is giving off the vibe that he knows this UConn team has a chance to be special. But that's not the second statement this game made.
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So, I grew up in Massachusetts. Was on the radio for 20 years. And the reality is, college sports just aren't as big here in Boston as in places like the Midwest and the South. I've always believed that. Football and hoops.
But watching the TD Garden crowd go bonkers for UConn/Michigan - a neutral-site game in November - made me think that maybe if Boston had an elite, elite program, it might be different. BC and UMass played in the game before this at the Garden, in front of about 5,000. UConn/Michigan banged the place out a few hours later, and it sounded like a tournament game.
I mean, this was the first basket of the game!
Unfortunately for Boston fans, the only elite program in the Northeast plays about 85 miles south in Storrs, CT.
A good win. A statement win. In front of an insane crowd in Boston.